Nigerian child bride Wasila Tasi'u admitted to killing her husband by putting rat poison in his food during court proceedings on Monday.
Tasi'u, 14, faces the death penalty for the death of 35-year-old Umar Sani, who was killed just two weeks after their wedding.
Officials say that homicide investigator Abdullahi Adamu translated her confession from the Hausa language, and that the teen signed her name with a thumbprint because she cannot write, the Associated Press reports.
Another one of Sani's wives, identified as Ramatu, said that she and Tasi'u prepared the food together on April 5, and she did not witness any poison added to the mixture. Ramatu recounted that it was Tasi'u's turn to sleep with Sani, so Tasi'u was the one who served her husband the food.
After eating, Sani had trouble walking and was foaming at the mouth, Ramatu said. Three other people who ate the meal also died.
Women's rights activist Zubeida Nagee of Kano said that Tasi'u was firmly against the arranged marriage.
"She was married to a man that she didn't love," Nagee told the Associated Press. "She protested but her parents forced her to marry him."
Now, Tasi'u's father is asking the High Court in Gezawato spare his daughter's life. "We are appealing to the judge to consider Wasilat's plea," Isyaku Tasi'u said in November.
Lamido Soron-Dinki, Kano State Ministry of Justice Senior State Council, filed capital charges against the girl, and Nagee and other women's rights advocates sent a letter to the Kano state deputy governor protesting the charge. The activists said that the teen is also a victim in the case, and the product of institutionalised injustices against females.
A motion to have the case moved to juvenile court was rejected, and the trial is adjourned until February 16. According to Human Rights Watch, Nigeria has not executed a juvenile offender since 1997.
